Curated OER
Ollie the Own Says: WHO
Scholars examine the strategy of making a story map or outline to identify the main elements of a story. They discuss the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a story, in an outline form. As a class they read a short story, answer the...
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I Can Answer That!
Enhance reader comprehension! Examine different comprehension strategies with your second, third, and fourth graders. They discuss the strategy of questioning by developing their own comprehension questions to help improve their memory...
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"Aaaaaa!!!!" It's Okay, Baby!!
Your kindergarten or first grade class works on recognizing the /a/ sound in spoken words. Use the fun tongue twister to help remember the target sound, and practice writing the letter a. Then have them write words that use this target...
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Summarizing with James and the Giant Peach
Elementary readers in literature groups practice summarizing chapter-by-chapter with Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. Focus on main idea, supporting details, and the 5 Ws. Unfortunately, a clever "peach" graphic organizer to which...
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Super Summarizer!!!
Emerging readers summarize a nonfiction text using a five step process. After a brief demonstration of the five-step method for summarizing text, they read a nonfiction article and write their own summary. A checklist of each summary is...
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Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
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Bridge to Terabithia: Visualizing to Optimize Comprehension
Good readers visualize. And in our image-rich culture it is imperative that children are provided with opportunities to practice this important skill. A selection from Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and Bridge to Terabithia,...
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Why?
Students discuss the concept of asking questions while reading. They discuss the types of questions to ask that will improve their comprehension. Students read from a textbook and practice creating questions to ask themselves while...
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Question What You Read
Readers test their reading comprehension after reading a nonfiction text about Paleo Indians. (This text is in Alabama: It's History and Geography, but other texts can be used.) After reading the nonfiction article as a class, they...
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Hop on the Express Train to Read Expressively
Encourage beginning readers to read expressively. After the teacher models what it's like to read with expression, pairs of learners work together to practice developing this ability. While one learner reads, the other marks a check-list...
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Say it with FEELING!
Why should we read with expression when we read? Engage your learners in this discussion and teach them the easiest way to gauge expression: the end mark! Is it a question mark? An exclamation point? This helps you determine how to...
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Expressive Eloquent Experts
What does it mean to read expressively? Beginning readers hear examples of expressive reading and partner up to practice. One partner reads The Littlest Pumpkin and the other partner reads Franklin and his Friend. While one person is...
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Read and Get Smart
Use the class textbook to read a full story about Martin Luther King, Jr. The class writes facts about him and outlines his life, then they read the author and illustrator summaries at the end of the story. They compare and contrast the...
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Iggy the Penguin
Take your young word detectives on a hunt for the /i/ sound. Use the tongue twister about Iggy the penguin to help learners identify the target sound. Then learners are given several words, and they have to use their detective skills to...
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OW! I stubbed by toe
Drill and practice the /ow/ sound! Kids practice recognizing pictures that begin with the ou=/ou/ correspondence. They experience a letterbox lesson to help implement this task before them as well as reading the story, The Napping House,...
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Get the Chicks in the Coop
Readers work to increase the speed of their out-loud reading to improve overall fluency. They work with partners to time and record how far they read in one minute using the book Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type. The procedures mention...
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Be Expressive!
First through third graders explore reading with fluency and expression. They examine how to read with expression, changing the speed, volume, and pitch of their voices while reading. Students listen to a story that is read with...
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Beginning to Read
Students explore various books read by their classmates outside of school. After reading books of their choice, the class creates a bulletin board summarizing their main ideas of the book and their opinion of the book using Flat Stanley.
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Teaching Summarization
Examine the process of summarizing a piece of text using the book So You Want to Be a President? Kids review the definitions for main idea, topic sentences, superordinate terms, and supporting details. Next, they work in small groups to...
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Slim Pig
Beginning readers study the short /i/ sound. First they determine how the mouth moves when they say the target words in a tongue twister. They complete letterbox activities by making words with the short /i/ before reading What Is It and...
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Book Talk Fun!: Growing Independence and Fluency
Master reading fluently and with emotion and expression! Young learners read and reread the book Tiki Tiki Tembo by Arlene Mosel to practice this strategy. The remark on the end punctuation to help them decide how to read the sentence.
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Comprehending the Story
Learners explore story-grammar. They discuss story-grammar and read That Mean Man. A story map is created and a Venn Diagram is used to compare and contrast concepts within the story. They retell the story and use a story pyramid to...
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The 5 W's of Reading
Primary students will use the five "W" questions for reading comprehension as they read silently to themselves so that they can understand and remember what they have read. They then read The Velveteen Rabbit aloud, discussing the five...
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Writing Process
Students read "The Great Kapok" and choose to agree or disagree with the main character's decision. They gather and organize details from multiple sources to defend their standpoints. They begin prewriting steps of process writing.